Updated December 15th, 2020 at 10:54 IST
'Great relief': Canada administers first COVID-19 vaccines, Trudeau hails 'big step'
A frontline healthcare worker and an elderly nurse from the home care in Canada were among the first to get vaccinated in a mass campaign.
Advertisement
Canada on December 14 inoculated citizens with Pfizer and BioNtech COVID-19 shots, becoming the third nation in the world to administer vaccines after the UK and the US. A frontline healthcare worker and an elderly nurse from the home care were among the first to get vaccinated in a mass campaign that was aired live on television. In an update shared by Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau, the 89-year-old support worker Gisèle Lévesque, a resident of the Saint-Antoine in Quebec City got a shot at around 11:30 a.m. Canada has planned to distribute at least 30,000 Pfizer-BioNTech batches of shots at 14 key point-of-delivery sites to the priority groups which involve the elderly and vulnerable and the frontline essential workers. Canada will obtain nearly 249,000 doses by the end of December.
Anita Quidangen, a personal support worker in Toronto, was one of the first people in Canada to be given Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. This is a big step forward in our fight against the virus, but we’re not out of the woods yet. pic.twitter.com/BCEkdoBWqy
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 15, 2020
Read: Canada Health Regulators Approve Pfizer-BioNtech's COVID-19 Vaccine
Read: Canada Health Regulator Approves Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine
37 million to be vaccinated
Earlier at a press conference, Trudeau spoke from the front steps of Rideau Cottage saying that he planned to get the majority of Canadians vaccinated against the novel SARS-coV-2 and the timeline that he had set is “optimistic”. “The fact that the doctors highlighted that if all goes according to plan, we should be able to have a majority of Canadians vaccinated by next September, puts us in very good stead,” Trudeau announced.
Behind the scenes during reception of the initial #COVID19 vaccine doses, arriving in Canada last night! pic.twitter.com/Q5ocHlHnuF
— Canada Border Services Agency (@CanBorder) December 14, 2020
The first batch of doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Canada. pic.twitter.com/xSvwkRROKo
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 14, 2020
Meanwhile, as the doctors and the healthcare workers cheered to the first batch of the vaccine being administered at Toronto's Rekai Centre nursing home, PM Trudeau, who plans to wait for his turn after the population is injecteded, seemingly not in a rush said, that it was a “great relief” to watch and a big step forward in the fight against the virus. “But we’re not out of the woods yet,” the Canadian PM stressed. While Quebec and Ontario make two states that have witnessed the surge in the COVID-19 cases with more than 85 percent, 13,341 COVID-linked deaths, Federal Minister for public services and procurement, Anita Anand, told a press conference that Canada plans to vaccinate a population of 37 million people, 21 days apart.
Read: 'Definitely A Treasure': Magazine Due Back In 1975 Finally Returned To Library In Canada
Read: Canada's Concern About well-being Of Indian Farmers Is 'nothing But Hypocrisy': BJP
Advertisement
Published December 15th, 2020 at 10:56 IST
Your Voice. Now Direct.
Send us your views, we’ll publish them. This section is moderated.